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Irish News

Nearly every cinema in Ireland which offered a live 3D screening of the canonisations of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII in Rome last Sunday, has reported a full house attendance.

Following a deal between broadcasting bodies which allowed 13 3D cameras at exclusive vantage points around St Peter’s Square to offer a live transmission of the ceremony for people who could not attend the event, five cinemas across Ireland offered a free screening of the footage from the biggest event in the Catholic calendar this year.

Cineworld and Movies@Swords in Dublin and SGC Dungarvan in Co. Waterford all reported a three quarters full screening of the event to nearly 200 people. Movies@Gorey in Co. Wexford had to move their broadcast of the live feed to a bigger screen to facilitate the numbers who att ended, and Movies@Dundrum in Dublin had to offer the coverage on a second cinema screen to accommodate a crowd of up to 400 people.

“It was a great idea,” Eugene Tobin from SGC Dungarvan told The Irish Catholic. “People thanked us for making the live coverage of the ceremony available and everyone went away happy.”

“The footage was the best live 3D footage I’ve ever seen,” said George Fields, film and technical manager with Movies@Dundrum. “The quality was pristine.”

Another 40 people turned out for a live 3D screening of the canonisation ceremony in All Hallows College Chapel in Drumcondra, Dublin offered to members of the public, and many stayed on for the regular Sunday morning Mass service.

Meanwhile at Ballybrit Racecourse in Galway, a gathering of about 6,000 people watched a screening of the highlights from Sunday’s ceremony, before a Mass of Thanksgiving led by Bishop Martin Drennan, following in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II who celebrated Mass there in 1979.